Kronos Quartet Beyond Zero

presents krONOS QUARTET BEYOND ZERO: 1914-1918 David Harrington violin John Sherba violin Hank Dutt viola Sunny Yang cello Post-Performance Discussions You are invited to remain in the theater immediately following the performance for an informal discussion with the artists. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Art Works, the Frank L. Harrington 1924 Fund No. 3, the John M. Tiedtke 1930 Visiting Performing Artists Fund and a Gift of Linda and Frederick A. Roesch ‘60, T’61, P’88, P’90. Part of World War I Reconsidered. Tuesday, February 10, 2015 • 7 pm Spaulding Auditorium • Dartmouth College prOGRAM This performance is presented without an intermission. Prelude to a Black Hole Eternal Memory to the Virtuous + Byzantine Chant (arr. Aleksandra Vrebalov) Three Pieces for String Quartet Igor Stravinsky Dance Eccentric Canticle Last Kind Words + Geeshie Wiley (arr. Jacob Garchik) Evic Taksim + Tanburi Cemil Bey (arr. Stephen Prutsman) Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis + Maurice Ravel (arr. JJ Hollingsworth) Smyrneiko Minore + Traditional (arr. Jacob Garchik) Six Bagatelles, Op. 9 Anton Webern Mäßig Leicht bewegt Ziemlich fließend Sehr langsam Äußerst langsam Fließend They Are There! Fighting for the People’s New Free World Charles Ives Nunc Dimittis from All-Night Vigil + Sergei Rachmaninov (arr. Kronos Quartet) Beyond Zero: 1914–1918 * A work for quartet with film Composer ............................................................................................................... Aleksandra Vrebalov Filmmaker ............................................................................................................................. Bill Morrison Creative Consultants ................................................................... David Harrington and Drew Cameron Producer .................................................................................................................Janet Cowperthwaite Production Management ............................................................... Kronos Performing Arts Association * Written for Kronos / + Arranged for Kronos Beyond Zero: 1914–1918, with music by Aleksandra Vrebalov and film by Bill Morrison, is supported in part by an award to the Kronos Performing Arts Association from the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works. Additional funding for the project is provided by The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Beyond Zero: 1914–1918 was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College; Cal Performances; and the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial and Harriman-Jewell Series, Kansas City, Missouri. krONOS QUARTET Violin .............................................................................................................................. David Harrington Violin ......................................................................................................................................John Sherba Viola ...........................................................................................................................................Hank Dutt Cello ........................................................................................................................................Sunny Yang Lighting Supervisor .............................................................................................................Brian H. Scott Sound Designer ......................................................................................................................Scott Fraser Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association P. O. Box 225340, San Francisco, CA 94122-5340 USA kronosquartet.org; facebook.com/kronosquartet; instagram.com/kronos_quartet; Twitter: @kronosquartet #kronos The Kronos Quartet records for Nonesuch Records. prOGRAM NOTES Prelude to a Black Hole “Most wars are made by small stupid/ The Great War, a monumental blunder of a selfish bossing groups/ handful of monarchs and ministers… while the people have no say.” [Charles Ives] “When we're through this cursed war / The monumental blunder began in Sarajevo, when All started by a sneaking gouger / one man shot another. Ninety-nine years later, making slaves of men” [Charles Ives] near the historical seat of Serb Orthodoxy, Aleksandra Vrebalov discussed the century’s wars contains, and sometimes conceals, the stories with Father Jerotej of the Kovilj Monastery. He of millions. The bombast of newspapers, the sang: warmongers’ whoop all too often drowned out private meditations, acts of remembrance, and “In everlasting remembrance shall the moments of innocent joy. righteous be, he shall not be afraid of evil tidings,” “In these great times, which I knew when …a Byzantine verse performed regularly at the they were small, and which shall be small again feasts of martyrs, always sung right at the point of should they live long enough” [Karl Kraus] communion with the divine. Kronos Quartet’s Prelude to a Black Hole weaves Others, too, gazed towards the heavens. together these quiet voices… Rachmaninov’s Vespers, a choral orchestration of “who would Kronos have been working Kievan and Russian znamenniy chant, were with in 1914?” [David Harrington] written quickly and with conviction during the first two months of 1915. Nyne otpushchayeshi—in with a collage (sometimes a barrage) of 78 Latin, Nunc dimittis—depicts the enraptured rpm records, piano rolls and antique musical Symeon, who had sworn not to die until he had instruments culled from around the world. beheld the Messiah. prOGRAM NOTES CONTINUED “Lord, now you let your servant go in peace / Your Russian peasant dance. The cello digs into a word has been fulfilled / My eyes have seven-beat ostinato, while the first violinist seen the salvation / You have prepared in capers to a dizzying, circular melody of twenty- the sight of every people…” three beats. From an identical point of As Symeon the God-Receiver utters his last, departure, each instrument proceeds on its merry way. The second piece, according to “A light to reveal you to the nations and Stravinsky, was a portrait of the glory of your people, Israel,” “Little Tich, a harlequin no more than four the serenely radiant harmony gradually darkens, feet in his shoes, but as full of humor as a until it is finally entombed in sepulchral B-flats for fraternal order funeral.” [H.L. Mencken, et al] the basses. though Ernst Ansermet was certain that “Danilin shook his head, saying, "Now where Stravinsky’s clown must be a sad one. on earth are we to find such basses?" …Nevertheless, he did find them. Some were less sad to see the war come. I knew the voices of my countrymen...” [Sergei Rachmaninov] “I can hardly wait any longer to be called up… It is the struggle of the angels with devils.” This descent into death was also to be [Anton Webern] Rachmaninov’s own: the composer so loved this work he chose it for his funeral. Yet Webern’s music contains none of this chest-beating. It demands that the listener The last of Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String respect the smallest, quietest utterance of the Quartet, with its call-and-response pattern, individual, that the listener respect music which echoes the litanies of the Russian Orthodox church. The deacon makes petition of God: “expresses a novel with a single gesture, a joy in a single breath.” [Arnold Schoenberg] “In peace let us pray to the Lord, for the The intensely spiritual composer sought to peace that is from above, and for the portray earthly transcendence. The lugubrious salvation of our souls, let us pray unto the lord.” fifth bagatelle recollects the death of Webern’s [The Great Litany] mother, while the sixth captures To which the congregation’s reply is almost always “The angels in heaven. The incomprehensible the same: state after death.” [Anton Webern] “ oo co u, ou y u ˇ –Gospodi pomiluj– Ravel, too, vacillated between the roles of poet Lord, have mercy.” and warrior. The Oiseaux du Paradis are figures from Persian myth, rare birds who appear to At the end, the viola issues a heartfelt heroes as auspicious omens. The gentle, modal “Amen.” harmonies and frequent melodic repetitions call to mind the courtly medieval rondeau. The three If Stravinsky’s third piece addresses the soul, the birds themselves, emissaries from a friend who other two attend to the body. The first has gone off to war, are movement offers a Cubist perspective on a prOGRAM NOTES CONTINUED “more blue than the sky…. as white as snow… “If you love me and it's a dream, bright, bright red” may I never wake up,” Displaying these patriotic colors, they bestow the lonely could forget abandoned homes and upon the poet (in this case, Ravel himself) absent lovers. Born on the eastern Greek isle of Kos, Papagika performed (it is thought) through- “a blue-eyed glance… the purest kiss… out the Levant before settling in America. She a crimson heart” brought with her the smyrneiko, the popular, instilling in him both fear and a desire polyglot cabaret style that originated in the cafes for reunion. The work was dedicated to Paul of cosmopolitan Smyrna. Painlevé, mathematician, minister and aeronautic “In the sweetness of dawn, engineer. The composer yearned to fly for France God should take my soul away.” and, against the advice of horrified friends and colleagues, used his connection with Painlevé in War did not end in 1919, the year Papagika made an attempt to enroll in the country’s air corps. her recording. Greek forces wrested Smyrna from the collapsing

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